Biography
Ed Yost was a U.S. Army soldier and one of the "Presidio 27" — the stockade prisoners at the Presidio of San Francisco who, on October 14, 1968, staged a sit-down protest against brutal conditions and the killing of a fellow prisoner, Richard Bunch, who had been shot in the back by a guard three days earlier. Singing "We Shall Overcome" and reading out a list of grievances, the men were charged with mutiny, a capital offense. On appeal in June 1970 the mutiny convictions were reduced to willful disobedience, and Ed Yost was released from confinement on November 17, 1969. The Congressional Record distinguishes that individual custody endpoint from the later appellate decision. Source: Congressional Record, August 6, 1970, p. 27642.
Representative Robert Leggett identified him as Pvt. Edward O. Yost and described his distinguished Vietnam service and Purple Heart in the Congressional Record, March 18, 1969, House p. 6684 (PDF p. 30).
Robert Sherrill’s 1970 account describes defense attorney David Lowe’s unsuccessful attempt to call Stanford psychologist Joseph Katz in the Presidio trial involving Yost. According to Lowe’s account, permission was denied even after he offered to fund travel and fees. This is attributed defense testimony, not a new custody episode.
Robert Sherrill (1970), reprinted in Cox Commission materials.
